The present invention is directed to chewy candy analogues that are compatible with ice confectionery products, particularly in terms of the process, storage and consumption conditions of ice confectionery products. Also to methods of making such chewy candy analogues; to methods of combining such chewy candy analogues with ice confections; and to combination ice confectionery products that include such chewy candy analogues.
Chewy candy or sugar confectionery products have been known throughout the ages and these satisfy both nutritional, for example energy, and hedonic needs, especially sweetness, of humans. They include items such as certain boiled sugar sweets, caramels, toffees, fudges, gums, jellies, licorice paste, cream paste, aerated confections such as marshmallow and nougat, various tablets, lozenges, chewing gums, fondants, marzipans, and the like, and combinations thereof.
A key feature of such materials is the need to be stable microbiologically, as well as physically, above freezing and particularly at ambient conditions, and this involves the inclusion of relatively high levels of sugar or sugars and other soluble solid ingredients for preservation reasons. High levels of such ingredients increases the hydrophilic properties, i.e., lowers the equilibrium relative humidity of such articles making them unsuitable for combination with ice confections.
Additionally, because of the high sugar(s) and other total soluble solids present in prior art chewy candy materials, they have a requirement to be processed and formed or shaped at high temperatures. Such high temperatures are generally anathema to routine ice confection processing and forming.
Further, such chewy candy articles are also normally stored and consumed at ambient conditions. This often results in different textures than if they had been stored with ice confections and consumed at normal ice confection consumption temperatures. If regular chewy candy articles are stored and consumed at the frozen temperatures of ice confections, they are unacceptably hard and gluey.
In these respects, prior art chewy candy or sugar confectionery is incompatible with ice confections and so there is a need for analogues of such products which are so compatible.
Ice confections are also well known. They include ice cream bulk products, novelties, i.e., bar and stick items, hard pack and soft serve, specialties, molded, decorated items and slices, desserts, puddings, frosted items, frappxc3xa9s, punches, bisques, lactose, mellorenes, non-dairy, frozen yogurts, popsicles, ice jollies, slushes, sorbets and others, and various combinations thereof. Ice confections may also contain optional ingredients such as fruit, nuts, chocolate, flour based products, etc. Within the general description of ice confections may also be included those products substantially similar in structure or function to ice confections, but which may not meet the specific legal definition(s) of ice confections in terms of their specific composition and/or process. Ice confectionery products include single serve items, such as on a stick, as well as those in a push up tube, or otherwise wrapped for easy consumption. Ice confectionery products may also be in the form of desserts, more or less elaborate for consumption at a table. Ice confections also serve to satisfy both nutritional, for example refreshment and hedonic needs, especially sweetness, of humans.
In order for ice confections to provide refreshment, they need to contain significant water, mostly as ice. Therefore, such products are not compatible with regular chewy candy or sugar confectionery, which is hydrophilic. There is a marked tendency for such combinations with regular candy to result in candy that absorbs water from the ice confectionxe2x80x94with deleterious changes to both the candy and to the ice confection.
During the latter stages of the processing of ice confections, when combinations with other items such as chocolate, wafer, etc. are done, low temperatures are essential for reasons of shape, texture and microbiology. Such low temperatures are not appropriate for handling regular chewy candy or sugar confectionery because, at such temperatures the regular, chewy candy mass would not easily flow or otherwise be formable.
In order for ice confections to remain stable microbiologically as well as physically, they have to be at frozen conditions during their storage. They also are usually frozen throughout the vast majority of their consumption period to provide their cooling sensation and to maintain their physical shape and form. The ice confections will melt if stored at ambient conditions or if allowed to warm to ambient conditions prior to consumption. Therefore it is inevitable that chewy candy in a combination ice confection product will also be both stored and consumed at a lower temperature than is normal for regular chewy candy. This has significant consequences for textural characteristics, including bite and mouthfeel, and also for flavor release characteristics.
In these respects, high water content, cold processing, cold storage and cold consumption temperatures, ice confections are not readily modified to become compatible with the chewy candy or sugar confectionery of prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,681 describes two-phase food products with reduced inter-phase moisture transfer. The technique is to incorporate dextrin and a hydrophilic polysaccharide gelling agent like pectin in amounts sufficient to form a barrier layer. It teaches a baking stage for the barrier layer to dehydrate and become impermeable. Such a baking stage is appropriate for dough-based goods such as cookies or pizzas, but clearly not for ice confections.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,681 teaches preventing moisture transfer from a chewy fruit material into drier, baked, dough-based products. In the case of chewy candy and ice confection combinations, the challenge is to prevent the chewy candy, possibly fruit-based from attracting moisture into itself, moisture coming from the ice confection. In other words, the moisture gradient is in the opposite direction.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,236, the achievement of a dual textured food piece containing a solid harder portion and a softer portion is taught. In this document, the softer phase could have up to a 0.2 difference in water activity from the harder phase. This was achieved by the use of oil-in-water emulsion in the soft portion, such that the emulsion was dimensionally stable at rest in being a thixotropic gel, which created a barrier between the portions.
The ice cream-types of ice confections are made from mixes which are of oil-in-water type, and the water ice types of ice confections do not contain significant levels of oil. In ice cream confections, the product is rapidly frozen, which converts fluid oils to solid fats, thus almost completely preventing oil mobility towards, and oil deposition at product interfaces. Therefore, the teaching of U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,236 is inapplicable to composite food pieces in which one of the pieces is an ice confection, which is the softer phase. This is recognized in U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,236 where benefits such as long term, unrefrigerated, shelf stability are described.
In WO 98/34499, the preparation of sheared gels containing agar, guar and locust bean gum is described in the preparation of ice cream, mousse and low fat spreads. Such a microparticulated gelling agent mixture led to claims to simulate the use of gelatin, such that the products had reduced syneresis or weeping of fluids like water. This was believed to be caused by a postulated mechanism of gel recovery. Syneresis inhibition would seem a possible aid to inhibiting moisture transfer from ice confections to chewy candy items.
There is no combination, however, of the ice cream with chewy candy. It is in the combination that the chewy candy exacerbates the moisture transfer by attracting water from the ice confectionery. Therefore, modifying ice cream according the teaching of WO 98/34499 does not prevent moisture migration in a composite product as contemplated here.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,931, simulated fruit pieces having moisture transfer resistance are described. In this system, the fruit pieces contain at least 45% humectant to inhibit their loss of moisture, and have a barrier coating comprising a surround of dried fruit particles and a gelatin-based gel layer. The aim of this patent is to create a water activity in the fruit pieces as low as 0.3 to 0.5 to inhibit moisture transfer from the chewy fruit materials to dry materials such as bran flakes in a packaged breakfast cereal.
The cereal of this patent normally attracts moisture from the chewy fruit analogue particles. In the case of chewy candy and ice confection combinations, however, Applicants note that the challenge is to prevent the chewy candy from attracting moisture into itself, moisture coming from the ice confection. In other words, the moisture gradient is in the opposite direction.
Despite the difficulties of achieving a chewy candy/ice confection combination, the human needs for both energy and for refreshment are not mutually exclusivexe2x80x94especially on days of hot weather. For added convenience, for variety and for hedonic delight, it is therefore desirable to have available single products that contain combinations of chewy candy and ice confections.
Thus, there remains a need for analogues of such chewy candy or sugar confectionery materials that are compatible with ice confections. A need exists for chewy candy that can be processed and stored in combination with ice confections. Also, there is a need for chewy candy that can be consumed in combination with ice confections at appropriate temperatures, without the chewy candy losing its desirable characteristics. The present invention teaches how to make and how to use chewy candy analogues, in combination with ice confections, without the aforementioned disadvantages.
The invention relates to a chewy candy or sugar confectionery analogue or to a food product containing the same. The analogue advantageously has an equilibrium relative humidity of at least about 70% and a chewy transition temperature from about xe2x88x9215xc2x0 C. to 0xc2x0 C. Thus, the analogue is in a glassy state at normal cold storage and distribution temperatures for ice confectioneries but becomes chewy in the mouth when eaten cold, thus simulating the texture of regular chewy candy eaten at ambient temperature.
Suitable analogues include at least one ingredient of boiled sugar sweets, caramels, toffees, fudges, gums, jellies, licorice paste, cream paste, aerated confections such as marshmallow and nougat, chewing gums, fondants, marzipans. In a preferred embodiment, the chewy transition temperature of the analogue is from about xe2x88x9212xc2x0 C. to xe2x88x923xc2x0 C., and the equilibrium relative humidity is at least about 75%.
The invention also relates to a process for preparing the product, wherein the ingredients are dispersed with water, cooked, and then diluted with an aqueous phase under sufficient pasteurization to achieve a fluid pasteurized mass having the equilibrium relative humidity of at least about 70%.
Another aspect of the invention relates to a process for preparing a composite frozen confectionery product by combining the product with an ice confection, which includes rapidly cooling a fluid chewy candy mass by first contacting the mass with an ice confection having a temperature of less than about xe2x88x9215xc2x0 C. to form a combination, and conditioning the combination in a medium having a temperature of less than xe2x88x9215xc2x0 C. until the chewy candy mass has undergone a glass transition.
The invention further relates to a composite frozen confectionery product including a candy or sugar confectionery analogue as described above, and an ice confection. In one embodiment, the ice confection is disposed on a stick or in a push-up tube. In another embodiment, the ice confection includes at least one of ice cream, pudding, yogurt, popsicle, slush, or sorbet. In yet another embodiment, the ice confection further includes at least one of chocolate, flour-based products, or a plurality of fruit or nuts.
It is preferred that the analogue is predominantly glass, i.e., has less than half of its structure in crystalline form. In one preferred embodiment, the analogue is substantially free of crystalline structure. i.e., less than 5% of crystalline structure. In another preferred embodiment, the analogue is completely free of crystalline structure, i.e., is a complete glass.
In one embodiment, the analogue includes at least one coloring agent. In another embodiment, the analogue includes at least one sugar, palm oil, and water. In a preferred embodiment, the at least one sugar includes sucrose and corn syrup and the analogue further includes mango pulp, pectin and citric acid. In a preferred embodiment, the total sugar is present in an amount of about 60 to 90 parts, and the palm oil is present in an amount of about 2 to 8 parts. In yet another embodiment, the mango pulp is present in an amount of about 5 to 15 parts, the pectin is present in an amount of about 0.2 to 1.2 parts, and the citric acid is present in an amount of about 0.05 to 0.7 parts.